today i suffered through Reagan's '81 inaugural speech that was broadcast on NPR... i thought that it was admirable that someone was going to make note of the irony of hearing Ron's words from then in todays economic climate... for example he says:
" But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is..." well he doesn't end with "to continue this long trend IS MY FUCKING PLAN OF ACTION!" rather he says he's not for it, that too much government involvement is a bad bad thing etc etc... do i have to comment here about why i think this is ironic? sure the US unemployment rate was a hi 7.5% at the beginning of '81 but who believes that its only 10% today? raise hands...
and who believes that Ron was the corporate poster boy and sure, he was happy to stop 'government involvement' by handing the key to the country to wall street... in the rest of the speech in fact the phrase 'decreasing government involvement' for me became a sort of code for 'total selling out' stopping regulatory commissions dead etc... wasnt it Reagan who even put the cabash on how long TV commercials were allowed to be... simply put the deregulation of the advertising industry... i found this passage: In 1984, ACT (Action for Children's Television, a child advocacy group) responded to the proliferation of program length commercials by filing a complaint to the FCC. However, according to the FCC, "marketplace forces can better determine commercial levels than our own rules"
etc etc
so even before the speech droned on to its god-fearing conclusion i realized that we probably weren't gonna hear any bright summation after all, and lo it turned out that the speech was just a homage to 'stirring words' on some 'stirring words' show that found its way onto NPR and rather than pointing up the absolutely crazy irony of the words we listened to some Reagan biographer carry on about what a great president Ron was... the final irony was to hear this guy say what a great and inspiring speaker Ronnie was.. as they say he was listening to a different piece of bla bla than the one i heard
3 comments:
That goddamned monkey was a better actor than he ever was.
To me, Reagan was all blow and no show the whole eight years. He was also a shocking elitist who threw his heritage under the bus when he screwed the farmers over.
It's too bad Jane Wyman didn't cut his nuts off when she had the chance.
The only positive things Reagan inspired were all the good hardcore songs that bear his name
Well said, Chris! Not to beat a dead president, but also among Ronnie's Greatest Hits: getting rid of State/Fed Mental Health programs resulting in huge homeless populations, especially VietVets. Also for eliminating programs to aid minor children of deceased veterans to attend college. Thanks, Ronnie!
Okay, gettin' off the soapbox.
Post a Comment